Education inflation emerged around the developed nations over the course of last few decades. However, it was pointed out that having too many people with university degrees is not the only problem; too many students are graduating with good grades. Grade inflation started to become apparent in the United States and England. In England, it was estimated that the value of an A was the same as the value of a C in the 1980s. In the United States, nearly 45% of graduates received an A as their GPA, where it was only 15% in the 1960's. Grade inflation leads to situation where the value of A is not credible anymore. Also, numerous companies are paying less attention to the GPA and have started to focus on other factors.

Grade inflation is common around universities in Korea. From one research project done by the Academy Information, a governmental website, it became evident that Korea suffers from grade inflation. It was reported that around 35% of university graduates received as A as their GPA, and 90% students graduated with a B as their GPA.

At Kookmin University, 41.3% of 2011 graduates finished school with an average score of etween 90 - 100. On the other extreme, 4.2% students received average scores of C+ and C0. Moreover, it was found that over 13,344 A+s out of 46,582 were handed out to students in major courses and 10,000 A+s out of 44,377 in elective courses last semester.

The cause of grade inflation is linked to both students and professors. At the beginning of a semester, students search through lecture evaluations on an Internet community site to check whether their professors are generous graders. During the course registration period, some students even take a further step and pay money to students who have registered for an easy A course, in exchange for the course. On the other side, professors and lecturers fear that their courses might be closed due to small numbers of enrolling students.

Professor Kim Suk-Yeon at the Japanese Studies department commented that such a trend is visible at the university quoting it is “epidemic.” However, he also acknowledged the difficult position that professors are in. “I do not want to see my students suffer unduly just because they had me as their teacher,” said Professor Kim. He also said “I can only suggest that we all take what we do at the university seriously and try to maintain a minimum standard of academic excellence.”

The effects that grade inflation brings are clearly shown in the job market. Companies are now saying that what is on paper matters no more. Recent findings suggest that extracurricular activities or activities outside universities are increasing rapidly in response to such trend.

In order to deflate grades, the university has a policy for the professors to grade on a curve, except for English lectures and lectures with 19 or fewer enrolled students.

The campaign promise made by the 44th Student Council President was another way to inflate grades. One of the promises was allowing students to erase up to 6 credits, if they exceeded the graduation requirement. Although such policy eases the burden of re-taking a course, the effect on grade inflation is expected to be severe.

Choi Yun-Seong(Reporter)

Paulc0615@kookmin.ac.kr